1. Field
The following description relates to a sensor for detecting force or torque along a plurality of axes, and, for example, to a hybrid type multi-axis sensor that may measure a force along at least 2-axes using a pair of electrodes.
2. Description of Related Art
Sensors that measure or sense forces and torques are widely used in various devices, and these sensors range from those having simple structures to devices having electronic components that take precise numerical measurement.
In an external force sensor, a strain gauge may be attached to a structure in an orthogonal angle to measure a variance of electric resistance, and then the measured variance may be converted appropriately to determine the magnitude of the force. In other sensors, a structure having a spring system is installed, and a displacement of the spring caused by the external force is measured using a length measuring mechanism, and converted into a numerical measurement for the magnitude of the force.
However, many of external force sensors are not competitiveness in terms of production costs due to its complex manufacturing process that involves a process of incorporating a multi-phase sensor.
In addition, in applications where the measurements needed to be precise, such sensors cost too much, and cannot be installed in products in which quality thereof can be improved by having a sensor.
In order to resolve these problems, sensors that measure external force using capacitance values are under development, but a general capacitance value measurement type sensor only measures the force along one axis by detecting one capacitance value with one electrode. Therefore, to measure the force along a plurality of axes, a plurality of electrodes has to be used, increasing the complexity of the device and increasing the cost of production.